Hey there. Orianna here from Fortune.

Getting a job in Silicon Valley is so cutthroat that some ambitious unemployed twenty‑somethings are literally hand‑delivering donut boxes stuffed with their résumés to founders’ front desks, hoping it will make them stand out for the hottest tech roles. But that’s nothing new, says Dan Rogers, the new CEO of the $1.8 billion workflow software company Asana.

Although Gen Zers are facing layoffs, hiring freezes, and AI anxiety at an unprecedented rate, landing a job at the HQs of Apple, Meta, and Alphabet “has always been a long shot,” Rogers told me.

He would know: Rogers is one of the few British Silicon Valley CEOs. He started out in the small town of Grimsby—better known as the butt of a Sacha Baron Cohen movie than as a tech launchpad—and worked his way up to the top job in San Francisco via stints at Dell, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and more.

“I don’t remember it being easy back in the day… it was never going to be possible that I’d go straight to the hottest tech company in the hottest role.”

And now that Rogers is in the prime position of hiring and shaping the Bay Area’s workforce, he says that’s still the case.

Instead of turning to unusual hiring stunts, he recommends quietly building a résumé that’s impossible to ignore—even if it takes years and detours through less prestigious companies. Or as he put it: "Maybe come into the side door instead of the front door."

Rogers stresses that landing an entry-level job, internship, or grad scheme at a top-tier tech giant straight out of college is a long shot. For most Gen Zers, he says, the best route is to build credible experience somewhere that will teach you the skills the big names will eventually want—and that’s advice that goes way beyond Silicon Valley.

With unemployment rising globally and millions of young people finding the "front door" slammed shut, the side-door approach is a strategy worth stealing—no matter the industry.

Take roles at smaller firms, in different regions, or in adjacent industries where you can stack real skills instead of just job titles. Rogers did stints in Texas and Seattle before he ever made it to San Francisco. By the time he finally arrived, he’d built enough varied experience to draw on in interviews—what he jokingly calls his "donut box" approach to selling himself to tech bosses.

“For those of us that don’t get through the front door, it’s okay,” he adds. “There are side doors along the way, and you’ve just got to build towards that.”

—Orianna Rosa Royle
Success Associate Editor, Fortune

Got a career tip or dilemma? Get in touch: orianna.royle@fortune.com. You can also find me on LinkedIn, TikTok, X, and Instagram.